Pasta with Mussels & White Wine Butter Sauce
If you have access to fresh mussels from a source that you trust, this mussel and pasta dish is worth making on a weeknight or weekend evening when you have an hour to spare. Set aside the ¼ cup of white wine needed for the dish and enjoy the remainder of the chilled bottle with your dining companions before dinner.
Ingredients
- 5 Tbsp whole salted butter
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 Tbsp red pepper flakes
- 2 lbs very fresh mussels, on ice, individually de-bearded and cleaned. *Any cracked mussels or mussels that remain open after being tapped on a hard surface should be immediately discarded in the trash and not cooked or eaten. If you have any questions about the quality of an individual mussel, throw it out.
- 3 large cloves of garlic, finely minced
- 2 tsp red pepper flakes
- ¼ cup decent white wine
- ½ cup resh parsley, roughly chopped
- 12 oz dried pasta of choice, linguini works great here
- ¼ cup heavy cream
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- ¼ cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Clean each mussel by pulling out the “beard,” or fuzzy part that is attached to the outside and inside of the shell’s outer edge.
- Pull on the beard using a paper towel or wet washcloth held close to the shell, removing as much of the beard from within the shell as possible.
- Wash the exterior of the de-bearded closed mussel shells with cold water and reserve in a bowl.
- *Note, if any of the mussels have cracked shells or do not fully close when tapped on the countertop, discard them.
- Bring salted water to a boil in a large pot for cooking the pasta. When the water is boiling, add the pasta and cook to al dente.
- Heat 1 Tbsp butter and 2 Tbsp olive oil in large saute pan, until the oil is warm, but not smoking.
- Add the garlic and red pepper flakes to the pan and stir the contents.
- Drain excess water from the mussels and put them into the saute pan. Add the white wine and increase the heat to high.
- When the shells have opened fully, remove the cooked mussels. Add the heavy cream and parmesan cheese to the remaining cooking liquid and stir until fully combined.
- Turn off the heat, and add the remaining butter and stir to incorporate fully.
- Drain your cooked pasta, and add to the sauce along with the cooked mussels and toss together.
- Mix in the fresh parsley and serve hot, reserving some fresh parsley for garnishing the top of the final dishes.
Notes
Depending on the number of people sitting down for dinner, allow for roughly ½ lb of mussels (with shells) per person for an entrée-sized portion.
This is not a dish that does particularly well re-heated, in terms of the mussels. Buy only the quantity of mussels you intend to cook that evening, and ideally buy the mussels fresh on the day that you intend to cook the dish.
Do not take the risk of cooking mussels that are not alive. If the shells remain open after tapping on the counter or are broken, the mussels are dead and will likely make you and your diners sick.
That being said, don’t be afraid of cooking fresh, live, cleaned, closed mussels sold from purveyors you trust. As the mussels open their shells fully during the cooking process, the salty broth they contribute to the final sauce for the pasta makes the initial mussel cleaning process entirely worthwhile.
Avoid overcooking the mussels, when the shells of a mussel are fully opened, the mussel is done cooking and can be set aside and eventually tossed with the hot pasta when the remaining mussels are done cooking.
This is not a dish that does particularly well re-heated, in terms of the mussels. Buy only the quantity of mussels you intend to cook that evening, and ideally buy the mussels fresh on the day that you intend to cook the dish.
Do not take the risk of cooking mussels that are not alive. If the shells remain open after tapping on the counter or are broken, the mussels are dead and will likely make you and your diners sick.
That being said, don’t be afraid of cooking fresh, live, cleaned, closed mussels sold from purveyors you trust. As the mussels open their shells fully during the cooking process, the salty broth they contribute to the final sauce for the pasta makes the initial mussel cleaning process entirely worthwhile.
Avoid overcooking the mussels, when the shells of a mussel are fully opened, the mussel is done cooking and can be set aside and eventually tossed with the hot pasta when the remaining mussels are done cooking.